US holds back $65m aid to Palestinians

The US is withholding more than half of the $125m (£90m) it gives to the UN relief agency for the Palestinians, American officials say.It will provide $60 million in aid to the UN Relief and Works Agency but will hold back a further $65 million “for future consideration”.President Donald Trump said earlier the US could cut aid if Palestinians rejected peace efforts with Israel.The US funds almost 30% of the UN agency’s work overall.In 2016, the second-largest donor, the EU, gave less than half as much as the US.On Sunday, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas sharply attacked Mr Trump’s Middle East peace efforts, saying he would not accept any peace plan from the US after it recognised Jerusalem last year as Israel’s capital.He accused Israel of putting an end to the 1994 Oslo Accords, which began the peace process.Why is the aid being suspended?The US appears to be acting on President Trump’s complaint that America receives “no appreciation or respect” in return for its aid.Speaking to Reuters news agency on condition of anonymity, a US official said the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) needed to be fundamentally re-evaluated “in the way it operates and the way it is funded”.”It is time other countries, some of them quite wealthy, step in and do their part to advance regional security and stability,” the official added.How much aid does the US send to Palestinians?Last year the US donated almost $370m (£270m) to UNWRA, which runs educational, health and social programmes. It also donated $260m in bilateral aid, with much of it going towards projects administered by the US Agency for International Development (USAid). Those projects are run by non-governmental organisations involved in humanitarian assistance, economic development, democratic reform, improving water access and other infrastructure, healthcare, education, and vocational training.By contrast, Israel receives more than $3bn in military aid per year from the US.Why is the status of Jerusalem so contentious? The president’s decision last month to recognise Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and begin preparations to move the US embassy there from Tel Aviv were denounced by the Palestinians, who said it showed the US could not be a neutral mediator.
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Media captionWhy the city of Jerusalem mattersUN member states also voted decisively at the General Assembly in favour of a resolution effectively calling the US declaration “null and void” and demanding it be cancelled.The status of Jerusalem goes to the heart of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.Israel regards Jerusalem as its “eternal and undivided” capital, while the Palestinians claim East Jerusalem – occupied by Israel in the 1967 Middle East war – as the capital of a future state.Israeli sovereignty over Jerusalem has never been recognised internationally, and according to the 1993 Israel-Palestinian peace accords, the final status of Jerusalem is meant to be discussed in the latter stages of peace talks.Since 1967, Israel has built a dozen settlements, home to about 200,000 Jews, in East Jerusalem. These are considered illegal under international law, though Israel disputes this.